


Quiet, Mr. Spaceman

by Mirror_Face



Category: Dangan Ronpa - All Media Types, New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Assassin Work, Dead Body, Kaito is Dead, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-31
Updated: 2019-12-31
Packaged: 2021-02-27 04:22:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,067
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22041025
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mirror_Face/pseuds/Mirror_Face
Summary: “Um… excuse me, but is that man… dead?”“What? Him? Nah, pfft! He’s just sleeping, had too much to drink, if you get what I’m saying- a good friend of mine, named… uh…” Kokichi fumbled with the corpse’s wallet, taking a glance of the man’s ID, “Kaito Momota. He’s an organ donor, y’know that?”“He smells.”“Of booze, he does.”“I’m sorry, but he kind of seems dead.”“Heh heh…” Kokichi wiped some sweat that was starting to trickle down his forehead. God damnit, he knew he should have just stuffed the body in a trash bag- but just the image made his stomach churn and leap. “Hey, what are you, a police officer? This man’s asleep, just accept the facts.”“Well actually-” the young man had started to say, taking out a badge of some sort. However, before he could say anything more, Kokichi had already ran off, dragging the body of Kaito Momota along with him.This was what Kokichi got for being in debt to an assassin. Honestly, he didn’t know what he had expected.
Relationships: (Implied) Harukawa Maki/Momota Kaito, Harukawa Maki & Oma Kokichi
Kudos: 53





	Quiet, Mr. Spaceman

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly, this is the best thing I've ever written.
> 
> (If anyone cares, my update schedule will be in the bottom notes)

Dragging around the dead body of a purple haired man in the sweltering summer heat was not how Kokichi had wanted to spend his day. But alas, he supposed that it was in some way his fault. Being in debt to an assassin wasn’t exactly a smart thing to do, especially one as rude and calloused as Maki Harukawa. 

But maybe he wasn’t giving her enough credit, she hadn’t seemed exactly apologetic over the phone- but then again, she wasn’t really an emotional person. Kokichi had noticed some slight tremor in her voice, but asking about it seemed to be begging for death- so he just ignored it. In all honesty, the request was pretty odd, even for Maki. She had even said that she didn’t want his debt to be repaid with assassin work- so either this wasn’t assassin work, or Maki had been lying. But he would’ve known if she was.

Maki was a terrible liar.

_“I just want you to pick up the body and move it to the stargazing hill that’s northwest of town. Then bury it, I’ll provide the shovel.”_

_“I thought you said that assassins usually just burn the bodies?”_

_“Usually, but this one deserves more than that.”_

_“Hmmm… so, will he get recognized easily- is he like a politician or something?”_

_“No, just a spaceman who knew too much.”_

Yes, the situation was definitely odd, but Kokichi didn’t have much more time to dawdle around tryin to complete a puzzle with missing pieces. Kokichi had, however, agreed with himself that there should be no hard feelings between him and Maki- work was work after all. He understood, though maybe not to this high of a degree.

Once Kokichi had gotten to the address that Maki had given to him (an abandoned alley, away from the town’s heart- but still pretty far away from the specific hill that Maki had requested.) his eyes had found their way over to the body. It wasn’t as bad as he had thought an alleyway with dead guy in it would be. All in all, six out of ten. But that didn’t stop him from retching and coughing up his (very small) breakfast in the corner of the alleyway. Wiping spit from his cheek, Kokichi stopped himself from covering his nose as the smell of death came down in a massive wave.

“Fuck.”

The body was already starting to smell- quite the bother if he was to carry it down the street in broad daylight. How Maki had dealt with this for thirteen years would forever be a mystery.

Finally, Kokichi worked up the courage to walk up to the body and inspect it further (for he was no detective, but he prided himself in having a keen eye). The body was laying face down on the hard concrete floor. Utop the body’s neck, there seemed to be a piece of duct tape, stained in a deep red- dried out blood. Kokichi stood confused for only a moment, before he realized what it was there for.

Kokichi assumed that Maki had just left him alone with a dead body and expected him to do the impossible with no help. However, that assumption seemed to be wrong. With that duct tape covering the wound (which seemed to be pretty deep) the now-dead man’s clothes didn’t get very bloody- there only seemed to be some on the back of the man’s white collar, and a bit staining his jacket’s back.

Kokichi sighed in mixed relief. At least he wouldn’t have to worry much about hiding blood. If Kokichi had to compliment Maki- at least her kills were clean.

Kokichi eyed the body carefully, not exactly sure what to do next. Perhaps he should flip over the body, he had to if he wanted to fully inspect it. But, just the idea of his bare hands touching the man’s corpse made Kokichi freeze in a mix of anxiety and fear- emotions that he wasn’t exactly proud of experiencing. His bare hands…

But he had to do it, Kokichi wasn’t a coward, he refused to be. He could touch a dead body, flip it over- he had to drag it around town anyways, might as well get some practice. And so, Kokichi slid his hands under the corpse and (involuntarily) shut his eyes as he heaved and flipped the body. A small this resonated throughout the alleyway, though it was to quiet for anyone other than Kokichi to hear.

Trying to steady both his hands and his mind (‘I touched a dead body’ seemed to be the only thing he could think in the moment), Kokichi stared at the man’s open eyes. They were purple. The man’s hair was also purple, matching he realized.

Had Kokichi never even noticed the dead man’s hair color? Had he been so distracted that he couldn’t even notice the obnoxious purple that didn’t seem to fit the alleyway’s gloomy aesthetic? Kokichi felt somewhat shameful of him not noticing something so obvious- being able to notice small details and put things together more easily than most. If his subordinates had been there, he would’ve been completely shamed.

But there was nothing Kokichi could really do about it at the moment, so he vanished those thoughts from his mind as he stared down at the dead man. His eyes were dull and dead and they bore right into Kokichi’s head. His feet shuffled in place as he pondered what to do next. Should he leave now, drag the body along with him? It was broad daylight- not exactly the best time of day to move a dead body around in public. He could wait, but just the idea of having to stay the entire day stuck in an alley with some rotting corpse made Kokichi’s legs want to give out from beneath him. And, maybe doing illegal things in the darkness of night was too predictable, too obvious. Dragging a dead body around town in the middle of the day was the exact thing that the police _wouldn’t_ see coming. To them, it was stupid and impossible. To Kokichi, it was his only option.

And so, after a stare down that lasted at least a minute, Kokichi hefted up the body, and he slung the man’s arm around his neck. That way, people would be more likely to suspect that Kokichi was just helping out a friend who had drank just a little too much at the nearby bar (it was only a little over lunchtime, so the story would check out). Kokichi wrapped his own arm around the man’s neck, making sure to cover his wound enough that a passing person wouldn’t notice it.

Kokichi sighed once again. Releasing the tension that his shoulders had built up, Kokichi calmed his mind again (he was still freaking out over having to touch a dead body). Breath in and out, in and out…

And he was ready. Well, as ready as he could be. Kokichi took a step forward- the body’s legs dragging out behind. The body wasn’t that heavy, but Kokichi wasn’t exactly a strong guy, so his arms were already starting to strain under the weight of the corpse. He forced a smile and kept walking. 

He was just helping out a buddy. 

* * *

Kokichi had been walking fine for quite a while, but the weight of the body was starting to catch up to him. That fact was proven by his wobbling (which was starting to turn severe) and shaky footing. What didn’t help his struggling body was the fact that someone had run into him (the corpse included), making both Kokichi and other person fall to the ground in a tangled mess.

Kokichi swore under his breath and pushed himself up first, before reaching down and grabbing the purple haired man’s corpse, adjusting its arms around his own neck once again. Looking up, he saw a young man dressed in black, trying to fix the positioning of his hat. His eyes were covered, but he seemed to be looking intently at the corpse that Kokichi was holding.

“Um… excuse me, but is that man… dead?”

God damn it, the man could already see through Kokichi’s facade. He would just have to lie his way through this situation.

“What? Him? Nah, pfft! He’s just sleeping, got a little too much to drink, if you know what I mean- a good friend of mine, named… uh…” Kokichi fumbled with the dead man’s wallet, taking a glance of the man’s ID, “Kaito Momota. He’s an organ donor, y’know that?”

“The body smells.”

“Of booze, he does.”

The man sighed and adjusted his hat nervously, “I’m sorry, but really, this man seems to be dead. Maybe you should take him to the hospital?”

“Heh heh…” Kokichi wiped some sweat that was starting to trickle down his forehead. God damnit, he knew he should have just stuffed the body in a trash bag- but just the image made his stomach churn and leap. “Hey, what are you, a police officer? This man’s fine. And alive. Just accept the facts.”

“Well actually, I kind of am a police officer?” At Kokichi’s confused look at his use of a question mark, the man elaborated, “I’m an apprentice detective.”

Well shit, it seemed that Kokichi just had to run into someone with connections to the police, didn’t he? Just his luck. 

There was a small moment of silence before Kokichi started to just walk away- hoping that that would be enough of an escape plan. Yeah, sure, the man was apart of the police force, but he seemed pretty spineless as well. 

“W-Wait! Where are you going?”

“I’m leaving. You’re just wasting my time here.”

“At least show me your ID!” The detective seemed to be panicking.

“Well then show me your badge.”

The young man, hat shielding his eyes from the hot sun, sighed, saying “Fine.” His hand dug into his pants pocket, searching for his detective’s badge.

As the detective was distracted, Kokichi rushed full speed ahead, bumping into the young man, making him drop his badge. The man sputtered at him to stop, but refused to just leave his badge behind. Kokichi, of course, didn’t stop as he dragged the body of Kaito Momota along. He couldn’t get caught. Luckily, it seemed that the detective wasn’t a very fast runner, which made Kokichi feel better about being weighed down by a corpse.

Once he’d made sure that the body and himself weren’t being followed, Kokichi hid inside an alleyway. That was close.

And he decided that he would stay away from the main part of the city while he was doing this favor. It was a stupid idea in the first place.

* * *

He had made it so far, he was so close to the hill. The sun was starting to set, he had spent hours slinking around in the empty alleys, too afraid that he might be questioned again. Kokichi hadn’t run into any more suspicious people, but it had taken longer than he had wanted to make it to the hill. 

And it was raining. It was fucking raining.

It had started off as a light dribble, but thirty minutes later and the water started to pick up speed, stinging Kokichi’s skin. His shoes were soggy and mud lined the bottoms of his pants. The body’s odor seemed to get stronger. He couldn’t dig when it was like that- the dirt would just turn into slop, and it would take forever to dig the human sized hole on the hill. Perhaps he could take cover? If he remembered correctly, there should have been a bustle of trees only a few minutes ahead.

And so, soaking wet and freezing cold, Kokichi ran a little faster into the cover of the grove.

  
  


It was still cold and wet in the space beneath the trees’ branches, and the body of Kaito Mamota still rotted, but there was a certain humidity under there that made Kokichi feel safe. His scarf (checkered, and one of his most prized possessions) was sticking to his collarbone. There was nothing to do but wait in the quiet, boring silence of the world, dead body leaning against a tree right beside him.

Kokichi needed to do something. He hated the tenseness of the air, and the empty sounds of the rain. He hated the fact that he was still near that god forsaken corpse. Because, no matter what Kokichi likes to tell people, he wasn’t a big fan of violence. He needed to distract himself, and what better way to do that than to unravel the mysterious mystery that was Kaito Momota and who he was? Kokichi liked to be informed.

And so, despite his own muddy hands and Kaito’s soggy jacket, Kokichi snatched the wallet from the dead body’s pocket. Doing so, he noticed the odd space patterns on the inside of his jacket- he seemed to like space, which made sense considering what Maki had said before.

_“He’s just a spaceman who knew too much.”_

What was that supposed to mean? Well, that was what Kokichi hoped to find out. All he knew was the man’s name, and that wasn’t enough to cure his curiosity.

Flipping open the wallet (not as wet as the jacket, but still soaking), Kokichi peered inside. Moist bills, the ID he had read before, a driver’s license, and a few pictures. That was it. Not even a credit card. Well, he had to work with what he got, he supposed.

Humming to himself, Kokichi took another look at Kaito Momota’s ID. It was filled with information that Kokichi couldn’t care less about. Kaito was age 23, only three years younger than himself. What a young age to die.

In his ID’s picture, Kaito Momota was smiling. A bright, bright smile. One that just screamed of confidence, one that said “I’m going to do it, just you watch!” The image, in contrast to Kaito’s now lifeless husk of a body, made Kokichi’s stomach do flips. What a young age to die…

Shaking his head, hoping to clear out his head, Kokichi put the ID back into the wallet’s pocket. Next was the driver’s license, shining a bit in the sheen of the rain. Again, his picture was him with a large smile. A smile that made Kokichi’s heart squeeze, because he looked so happy. So bright eyed. Looking forward to the future (that Kaito would never ever have). Nothing like the dull, empty- lifeless- eyes, that store into nothingness.

Again, Kokichi turned his head away, he was starting to regret looking through this dead guy’s stuff. But his curiosity wouldn’t be satisfied until he finished looking through everything, and even past that. Curiosity killed the cat- but that didn’t matter to Kokichi, he wasn’t really a cat person anyways.

And so he took out the pictures.

The pictures were small, cut into tiny squares and worn. They, as well, were wet. On all of them was Kaito Momota, smiling like he had something to live for. The smiles almost blinded Kokichi in both their numerous amounts and intensity.

(The thought, ‘he can never smile again’ crossed Kokichi’s mind multiple times, but he just ignored them.)

However, one picture caught his. Kokichi peered closer taking a look at the picture. Was that…?

The image showed Kaito, smiling, eyes soft as he stared at the other person in the picture. His hand was laying on the head of a furiously blushing Maki Harukawa. She was pouting and looking at the floor.

What the… hell? Maki knew this man, this dead body that Kokichi had dragged all the way up to the hill? Why had she…?

No. Kokichi once again shook his head. There was no point in pondering something that he couldn’t definitively solve. Maybe he could find out in a few years- maybe never. It didn’t matter.

Kokichi’s curiosity had not been tamed, but there was nothing he could do about that.

The rain slowed, and then stopped. The sun came out and dried the mud a bit, until finally it was nighttime. That was when Kokichi came out from under the trees, dragging the body along with him. It was cold.

The hill was empty of people, and laying on the hill was a shovel. It was dirty and still a little wet, but-

“At least she kept her word.”

It took Kokichi two hours to finish digging, then another thirty to cover Kaito Mamota’s body. Once he was done, Kokichi left quickly, almost running back to his house. He didn’t want to think about it.

He never wanted to think about it.

But his mind always seemed to come back to the body of Kaito Momota.

* * *

A week later, after that day (terrible, and yet strangely enlightening to Kokichi- as much as he wanted to forget that it ever happened), Kokichi saw the wanted posters. Kaito Momota, with his purple hair and purple eyes, was officially pronounced missing. And Kokichi couldn’t stop the guilt from worming its way into his stomach.

He ripped off the poster and stared at the man’s face. He was smiling in the picture, happy. That seemed to be a theme in Kaito’s photos, although his eyes weren’t as soft as they were in the photo with Maki. Poor, poor Kaito Momota- he didn’t deserve to die. Or maybe he did, Kokichi had never met the man himself. 

Maybe goes around comes around, and Maki had to kill Kaito as repentance for all of the lives she had ever taken. Why did Maki even choose killing someone she liked over fighting back against her orders. Maybe she felt that without her assassin career, there would be nothing left of her but an empty husk of nothingness (just as she had left Kaito to be).

To kill a maybe-innocent man just to make yourself feel better, how self centered… Though Kokichi guessed could say the same about anyone (including himself).

Ripping the poster to shreds in front of him, Kokichi counties to wander mindlessly through the street.

Maybe Maki would let him tag along to Kaito’s funeral (because Kokichi knew she would be invited, though he didn’t exactly know if she even wanted to go), because even though Kokichi’s only memory of Kaito Momota was as a dead, cold corpse, that had to count for something.

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah, so this is my pride and joy- a oneshot about Kokichi dragging Kaito's dead body around a city. I love it, and I hope you do too.
> 
> Anyways, my update schedule. The next chapter of In the Absence of Color is coming soon- it'll be out in at least 3 days and at most 5. Black and White Checkers will take a while though. The next chapter will be long, and I've spent more time planning than actually writing- so it'll take around 3-4 weeks before it'll be out. Sorry about that.
> 
> Thank you and goodbye.


End file.
